"Ryo-senpai! Absolutely not!"
Kita Ikuyo shot to her feet without hesitation.
She was thinking only of her idol's safety! Even in front of Ishikawa Hayabusa, she had no qualms about voicing her objection.
"Why?"
Ryo tilted her head slightly, puzzled. Her calm, clear eyes seemed to see right through everything, gazing at Kita Ikuyo as though she already understood.
Faced with Ryo's composed demeanor, Kita felt as if every little thought she'd tried to keep hidden had been laid bare. She suddenly found herself unable to say a word.
"Um… a boy and girl being alone together is… not good…" she mumbled weakly.
The fact that she didn't come right out and call Ishikawa Hayabusa a pervert was, frankly, surprising.
Nijika quickly followed up, trying to persuade Ryo more gently.
"Ryo, Hayabusa-kun is a boy too, you know… it really wouldn't be proper."
"…So that's what everyone thinks of me, huh?"
Before their words had even settled, Ishikawa Hayabusa—who had been sitting quietly beside them—suddenly spoke up.
His dejected tone froze both girls mid-protest.
Almost mechanically, they turned toward him.
For kindhearted girls like them, it wasn't easy to openly badmouth someone to his face.
While they struggled in that awkward bind, Hayabusa, with perfect openness, declared:
"You don't need to worry. I'm often alone with Bocchi."
"Eh?!"
Nijika and Kita practically jumped out of their seats, staring at Bocchi in disbelief.
It had only been a day or two since they'd started hanging out together, but anyone could see how Bocchi shrank away from people, timid to the core.
And yet Bocchi dared to be alone with Ishikawa Hayabusa?
Under their disbelieving gazes, Bocchi's hands curled protectively against her chest. Meeting their eyes, she nodded faintly.
"Ishikawa-kun… is a good person…"
Pfft.
Hayabusa clutched his chest dramatically.
As the situation began to spiral into chaos again, he struck a pose like he'd been fatally wounded by Bocchi's "good guy" card, then smoothly shifted the conversation.
"Well then… let's leave this for later. Kita, what kind of music do you like?"
Distracted by her earlier thoughts, Kita was a beat slow to react.
"Huh?"
Hayabusa repeated the question at a normal pace.
Kita blinked vacantly. She was just about to say, I don't know much about genres, anything that sounds nice is fine, when Ryo's earlier critique of Hayabusa's similar answer flashed in her mind.
Crap!
The last thing she wanted was for Ryo-senpai to call her "such a troublesome person."
Frozen in place, cold sweat trickled down her cheeks as all four pairs of eyes fell on her.
At that moment, one mischievous soul saw her distress and unleashed a mysterious burst of power and speed.
Swish, swish—
In two swift motions, Ishikawa Hayabusa had scrawled something on a slip of paper and now held it proudly against his chest.
His face bore a gentle smile, his eyes curved into cheerful slits as he looked at Kita Ikuyo.
Kita immediately noticed the lifeline being dangled in front of her. She hesitated.
Surely Ishikawa-kun wouldn't trick her… right?
…No!
She had just opposed him moments ago—this sly fox was absolutely setting her up!
And yet…
She had no other way out.
Balancing the two possible outcomes on the scale in her mind, she weighed them carefully.
One: be dismissed by Ryo-senpai as "a troublesome person."The other…
Without hesitation, Kita chose the other.
Her face bloomed with a radiant smile, her voice sugar-sweet and adorable.
"I like death metal! Blackened death is the best!"
Any consequence was a hundred thousand times better than being called "troublesome" by Ryo-senpai!
Kita was absolutely sure of it.
The words left her lips, and the whole room froze.
"…Ah."
Nijika felt her brain short-circuit.
Kita? Death metal?
She didn't dislike the genre herself—if anything, it was closer to what most people imagined when they thought of rock.
But hearing those words from Kita, who normally sparkled with sweet, cheerful energy, left Nijika utterly stunned.
It was like discovering that the gentle, red-hooded girl next door actually smoked, drank, and hacked apart wolves with an axe every night.
Meanwhile, Ryo's eyes flicked toward Hayabusa just in time to see him pocket the incriminating slip of paper.
She instantly understood.
"Pfft. Perfect."
She covered her mouth with her hand, letting out a small laugh. Then, unable to hold it in, she bent over the table, shoulders shaking with suppressed laughter.
"Ah… Kita-san likes it too?"
Bocchi's eyes lit up, leaning forward in delight toward Kita.
As for Kita herself—
Ryo-senpai laughed!
That was it. From now on, this would be her musical path.
Beaming like the sun, she answered with unshakable resolve:
"Yes!"
"Pfft."
Ryo almost spat out her laugh.
Barely holding it back, she shot Hayabusa a meaningful glance—desperately signaling him to let this truth rest, and leave it for Kita to discover on her own someday.
With the topic closed, Nijika reached again for the dice. But this time, her hand trembled slightly.
Clearly, she still hadn't recovered from the earlier shock.
She began to worry—what other explosive revelations might come out next?
Hesitantly, she tossed the dice.
Relieved at the result, she quickly announced:
"School topics! Abbreviated—school talk!"
She said it all in one breath, then glanced around the table, trying to decide who should start.
Ryo was out—once she started on a subject she liked, she could go on forever.
Kita… Nijika was still nervous she might say something earth-shattering again.
Bocchi… would probably end up trapped in a deadlock.
Hayabusa…
Somebody help me…
Nijika cried inside, then offered a silent prayer that he'd act normal this time. Plastering on a smile, she turned to him.
"Hayabusa-kun, what are you like at school?"
"Every day, I check up on the physical and emotional well-being of my classmates," Hayabusa replied with a dazzling smile.
It wasn't a lie—he really did keep an eye out for students who might be hurt, making sure no one suffered from bullying or injuries.
But given his infamous habit of calling himself a "pervert," everyone's minds automatically twisted his words in the worst possible direction.
"Hahaha, y-you're joking, right?" Nijika laughed nervously, wiping at the cold sweat on her temple.
But Hayabusa's bright smile didn't falter in the slightest.
"…You're joking, right?!"
Her smile vanished as she asked again, almost in tears.
Hayabusa raised a thumbs-up, his grin flashing like a star, but said nothing.
Thud.
Nijika collapsed to the floor.
With her down, Hayabusa smoothly seized control of the room.
"Then how about you, Kita?"
He turned his gaze on Kita Ikuyo.
Kita had been debating whether she should clarify his earlier "death metal" stunt, but one look at Hayabusa's expression made her abandon the idea.
Instead, she answered quickly:
"M-my school life is boring, really. Classes, hanging out with friends, and after school I never know what to do, so I just wander around, eat sweets, play games…"
Beside her, Bocchi's eyes lit up when she heard "boring." She leaned forward eagerly, as if she'd found a kindred spirit at last.
But the moment Kita mentioned "friends," it was as though a Lance of Longinus had struck her square in the chest.
She collapsed against her chair, utterly drained. Then, like a cruel barrage of spears, the word kept stabbing her over and over, whipping her lifeless body.
Even the little soul that floated from her lips was pierced and scattered.
Her health bar plummeted visibly, chunk by chunk.
"Kita-chan, stop! You're killing Bocchi-chan!"
Nijika, having just recovered, cried out in alarm before Hayabusa could intervene.
Bocchi, resurrected from near-death, gulped down a drink with trembling hands.
Nijika leaned on her palms, gazing at her softly as she asked:
"What about you, Bocchi-chan? What's your school life like?"
Bocchi froze.
There was no way she could describe her days right after Kita's answer.
If she spoke, it would only plunge her deeper into despair.
After a pause, she turned timidly to Nijika.
"Um… speaking of that… Nijika and Ryo-san go to the same school, right?"
"Yeah. We're at Shimokou. Kita-chan, Hayabusa-kun, and Bocchi-chan all go to Shuka High, right?" Nijika confirmed with a nod.
Ryo added, "We just chose it because it was close to home."
Kita nodded in agreement.
"Oh, so you all live in Shimokitazawa," Bocchi murmured in realization.
But Nijika caught something odd in her tone.
"Wait, Bocchi—don't you live around here?" she asked, surprised.
Bocchi lowered her head, her voice tinged with sorrow.
"No… I live outside the prefecture. It takes me two hours to commute."
Nijika's eyes widened. She couldn't fathom why Bocchi would go so far just for school.
"Why?" Kita asked, stunned.
"…Because I wanted to go to a high school where nobody knew me."
Her heavy, regretful voice fell like a dark curtain, dragging the atmosphere into despair.
"Stop! That's it for school talk!"